Class of 2010!

So one of my favorite teachers from high school is retiring soon so she's asking some of her graduates to write letters to her current class giving advice and some reflection about life after high school. Here's what I wrote:

Dear Class of 2010,

My name is Chelsey Spaulding, class of 2000. I was fortunate enough to be sitting right where you are, in AVC with Mrs. McDowell, 10 years ago (although I can’t believe it’s been 10 years, feels like yesterday!). At that point my main objective was to get on full time at State Farm or Country Companies; which was a fine plan but nothing went as expected, thankfully. I worked at State Farm through the work program but when graduation came they didn’t need my position filled full time, so I worked some odd jobs before landing at Country Companies. About 9 months later there was a big lay off. This was just the beginning of a wonderful turn of events. I realized I didn’t have many choices unless I went to college. At that time my thoughts were, “what’s the quickest degree program I can get?” So I looked at many of the 2-year programs out there- dental hygiene, x-ray tech, physical therapy assistant, and landed myself in the occupational therapy assistant program at ICC.

My first semester at ICC we did a project on alternative therapies. I did some research and chose to write about dolphin assisted therapy. I also saw this place in Florida that took interns for their dolphin program, so I applied on a whim. Imagine my surprise when I was accepted to go to Key Largo, Florida for 8 weeks the following summer, to live and work with dolphins! Of course it was an amazing summer all on its’ own to be around the dolphins but the bigger thing I got out of that experience was the people I met and the realization that I could do anything. I got to work with therapists and patients from all over the world, people who have traveled everywhere, tried things you wouldn’t imagine, shared tons of knowledge, and just opened my eyes to so many possibilities. When I came home from Key Largo that summer I was a totally different person with a totally new “plan.”
I realized I loved traveling and all that came with it so when I graduated I started working for a travel therapy company. Basically, I could tell them where I wanted to work and they find me a job there. This lead me to 2 years in Southern California and then to Arizona where I currently live and work as occupational therapy assistant. I work in the schools with kids who have disabilities. We work on many things like handwriting, cutting, coloring, tying shoes, buttoning, snapping; basically all the skills needed for the job of being a kid.

Obviously with moving it is nice to see the sights and get to know new places, but again, for me it comes back to 3 things: the people you meet along the way, learning to love & find the best in whatever “plan” unfolds in front of you, and challenging yourself all the time. Each person I’ve met and place I’ve been as lead me in so many wonderful directions; from that first scary move across the country, to raising thousands of dollars and completing marathons to help beat leukemia & lymphoma, to working with orphans in South Africa, to mentoring foster kids in Phoenix, to coaching Special Olympic athletes. With each new task I try I realize how much more I can do.

Ten years ago you couldn’t have told me I would have done any of these things. I wouldn’t have believed you, which is great because life has turned out to be a wonderful surprise. But I think it’s a combination of many things; working hard, appreciating the people you meet and taking whatever you can from that experience, being open to change and seeing the positive in whatever is thrown your way, using the opportunities that present themselves, giving back what you’ve been given, and of course being thankful.

I hope my short time since I was sitting in your seat has made you think a little about the possibilities for your life. It’s such a cliché but couldn’t be truer, dream big! You might surprise yourself.

Sincerely,
Chelsey Spaulding, Class of 2000

Drumroll please....

Hey! So…it’s been awhile huh?! For good reason, finally. I’ve been too busy, what with buying a house and all :) Yes, we finally got a house. We closed on August 17th, cleaned on the 18th, moved all of our stuff in on the 19th, unpacked a little on the 20th, cleaned out the apartment on the 21st, and handed back the keys on the 22nd because our lease was up! We had a lot to do in a very short time, plus in between all of this school started again so everything was being done in the evenings mostly. So far, we love it :) I can only seeing it getting better! For those who don’t know (which are very few) we bought a 2-story house, with 3 bedrooms, plus a loft; when you first walk in there is a room which is probably meant to be a dining & formal living room but will be “Ivan’s room/game room” in our house, then there is a living room off the kitchen too; we have a nice size yard and…..a pool! And not a play pool which is what many people have out here, but a pool with a deep end! It goes to about 6 feet deep, and the deep end there is a ledge to sit on right in front of our rocks/waterfall! So far we’ve had a couple people over to hang out and it’s been so much fun, and so nice to have. The rocks are awesome to jump off of and it’s just a great place to hang out. So our time has been spent calling various people to spray for bugs, trim the tree, get the pool sparkling, and unpacking. Oh, we also had new bedroom furniture delivered since our previous furniture was rented by my company. We’re totally in love with the stuff. And my friend Gretchen gave us a couch they didn’t want anymore to put in the front room. My parents are coming out next weekend for 10 days to help out with some cleaning, painting, changing lights, etc. I’m very happy to have their help! It will be nice to get all of this done with people who have done it a time or two before. So for now pretty much everything is unpacked. The front room is housing all the things we’ll be hanging after we paint, and some other things that don’t quite have a home yet—since we are able to spread things out now rather than just stack them all in a spare room we need to get more furniture, and then those things will have a home. Which leads me to my new love, Craigslist. I’ve never bought from craigslist before but I majorly hit the jackpot this week. I saw a washer & dryer about an hour after it was posted, so lucky me, we were the first to respond so we pick it up tonight :) And, I just happened upon a table (the old table was rented too). And not just any table, it seats 8 people, can extend to seat 12! Ivan is picking up everything tonight so I’m super pumped to see it in the house. I’ll post a link to pictures soon :)

Other than that it’s just been back to work, which has actually been really nice. I am a creature of habit so as much as I enjoy sleeping in and doing whatever I want, I’ve also truly enjoyed being back to work. Plus I’m back at one my schools I was at last year, which I’ve never been at the same school twice because usually we were moving, or I got moved within the district. But it’s really nice to be back. I already know the people, I already know most of the kids so you don’t waste as much time getting to know their skills, you can just jump right in and go even farther I think. And my other school is a school I had the year before last and I have a lot of friends who work there, so it’s really fun too. I definitely feel like this year is going to be a great year for work, and everything in general I think.

Talk soon!

Best Friends!

Hey! Alrighty, so Erin flew into town on Wednesday and we went out for some dinner and drinks that night at Macayo's (a popular Mexican place here), with some friends. On Thursday Erin & I worked on our tans (which didn't take much time!) and we went out to eat at Yard House (my favorite place!) Friday morning Erin & I started our trip north.

So we rented a car because my car is 13 years old and I wasn't sure how the combination of mileage, uphill/downhill, and heat would affect it. This of course makes me want a new car again because it was just so smooth! Anyway, we headed to the Grand Canyon which is always beautiful. I wish I could see it for the first time again ya know? But it's still fun to see, and fun to see people's reactions when they catch a glimpse for the first time. I think maybe sometime I wanna head over to the North Rim and walk on the skywalk. I pretty much always go to the same place every time I've been, Mather Point. And one time my friend Cathy & I went to Desert View-- which was neat.

So after the Grand Canyon we got back on the road to head to Kanab, Utah. This is like 3.5 hours or so further north and a little west. A beautiful route with the red rocks, through Page, and Lake Powell/Glen Canyon Dam. We got to our cabin on the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary grounds about 10 or so Friday night... we were greeted by the biggest bug I've ever seen hanging out on the door frame entering the cabin...I made Erin go in first. Thank God she's not afraid of bugs or we wouldn't have survived. I dunno what this bug was, but I swear it had horns and everything. It kinda looked like a bug that Pumbaa was following on the Lion King. Anyway from that point on I was on high alert. We walked in and I saw some other big bug on the floor, which Erin promptly smashed for me (THANK YOU ERIN!) And a few little ones here & there. So I made Erin check the bed, etc before getting in. We're laying there and I see a spider on the ceiling...Erin's asleep so all I can do is keep an eye on it. I swear I watched it for like an hour. It finally started moving across the ceiling, further from us until I couldn't see it anymore so I fell asleep-- although I was pretty tense as I slept! I woke up a bit later to the spider exactly where it had been earlier on the ceiling and started watching it all over again. It started moving towards the wall which I was thankful for so it would come down a little ways, I'd kill it, I'd sleep. This was the plan anyway...I watched it come further & further down the wall while gaining speed, I looked away for like a millisecond to pick up my shoe and he was gone! At this point I realize he must be in the bed but I can't see him, and I sure as heck can't just stand up the entire night so I get back in bed, tense as hell. I set my phone down and turn back just in time to see him scurrying down my arm!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?! I jump out of bed, Erin wakes up convinced I'm delusional. I turn the light on in time to see him all willy nilly crawling across the top cover, I swat, and miss him.... yuck. I finally get back in the bed, kick all the covers off and lay there pretty much in the fetal position, finally sleeping but swatting all night at phantom bugs! I wake up in the morning to the same (or so I thought!) spider up on the ceiling and Erin offs him for me :) Then we make the bed...where my friend from the night before comes crawling out of the covers. And Erin gets 'em. YUCK! The good news at this point is that every living bug I'd seen (aside from the giant Pumbaa bug) has been killed so I can relax. Although I spent the rest of the time there looking very carefully everywhere I sat or stepped, and shaking everything out before using it!!

Whew, so that morning we headed to the welcome center to check in and watch a welcome movie that tells all about the society and the sanctuary. Which I of course spent the whole time trying not to cry. After that we took a tour which drove us all over the place-- Horse Haven, Piggy Paradise, Dogtown, Cat World, etc. The sanctuary is set on 3800 acres of land and has more than 1800 animals at any given time. It's the largest no-kill shelter in the country, if not the world... (it may be, I'm not sure). The scenery is beautiful--rocks, cliffs, trees. Best Friends took in 22 of the Michael Vick dogs, which they call the "Vicktory Dogs." If I remember right, at this point the first 1 has been adopted out, and all but 7 are being fostered right now!! So, clearly the dogs can and are making progress. Dogtown is where all the dogs are kept and there's a few different locations. The buildings are set up as octagons where 1-3 dogs are kept in each space; which consists of an indoor space and an outdoor run. They all have little swimming pools for keeping cool, toys, and beds galore. It's obvious they are all very well cared for and HAPPY! Cat World has a bunch of buildings that also have indoor and outdoor spaces. They have a lot of rafters for the kitties to climb around in and tons of beds to lounge in too. They also have a couple special houses-- the "Incontinental House" where the incontinent kitties stay, and a house for cats with skin cancer that has shade over the screened in outdoor space. They also have places for bunnies & birds, and I'm sure something I'm forgetting.

After the tour we grabbed some lunch before heading to volunteer in Dogtown. Basically you can help out with whatever needs to be done. Each set of octagons has a caregiver that oversees everything going on with the dogs in those areas. The work consists of feeding, grooming, cleaning spaces, walking them, socializing, or taking them on outings. So, we took a dog, Miranda, on an outing. She loved riding in the car and we took her to the natural amphitheater that they have there to roam around. She was a pretty independent dog, not caring much for a lot of affection but still very sweet. When we took her back we helped clean out some swimming pools and fill them with water, which they loved! One dog in particular, Popi, LOVED it! He kept trying to steal the hose from Erin. After that we socialized a bit and picked out a pup for an overnight guest. Yes, you can take a dog to sleepover! A lot of the hotels in town allow dogs (as do the restaurants) and since we were staying on the grounds it was even better. The flooring is easy-clean stuff, and they have dog doors & little runs there to let the dogs out. Since we were in an easy-clean place they suggested we take a dog named Katie Mo. She's fairly new to the place and hasn't been house-trained yet so she hasn't got to do very many outings. She was a doll! A sweet girl, and she never had any accidents either! We just made sure she had a chance every couple hours and she woke me up in the morning to take her out. We got to take her into dinner with us too and she behaved really well.

Sunday morning we took Katie Mo back and headed over to Piggy Paradise to work with the 19 potbellied pigs they had there. So we made all the breakfasts. Each pig had a little menu all its' own. Some needed their lettuce finely chopped, others you just cut a head into fourths. They all got pellets and other vegetables too, and supplements as well. So then we went out and gave them each their food. Some of them knew how to sit so you had to ask them to sit before giving them the food! And they all would walk exactly to where you needed to set the bowl when you walked into the pen. It was funny :) They were super cute.

After the pigs we had to get back on the road to head back to Phoenix. It was a really fun experience and an awesome place to see & learn about. The website is www.bestfriends.org if you want anymore info. You can join, sponsor animals, etc and all the money helps keep the place running. It is a nonprofit with 400 employees that runs on donations! In addition to all the care the animals get they also do a lot of outreach work and activism. Pretty cool place.

So Erin headed back to Illinois this morning and it's getting closer & closer to reality for me...a.k.a back to work. I had to go get a TB test this morning and still need to get a physical and drug screen for work this week. But good news, my friend Heather (met in Africa, from Scotland, met up with in NYC this summer) is flying in on Thursday!! I'm pretty excited about that cuz it's always great to see people and who knows when I'll see her again. So we'll be heading up to the Grand Canyon (what can I say, if you're out here you should see it!) And probably Sedona. She's not sure how long she'll be here but anyway, it'll be fun.

Oh, and here's a link to the pics from Erin's visit if you wanna see:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044981&id=197103045&l=942c823c0e